The 2008 numbers for advertising expenditures have been announced by IPSOS. The Middle East shows a consistent growth reminiscent of previous years growing by around 18% from $9 billion to $11 billion from 2007 to 2008 compared to $7 billion to $9 billion in the earlier year. This consistent growth shows that the market is yet to feel the brunt of the global financial crisis.

As expected, T.V. continued to take the lions-share of the advertising expenditure, now securely mirroring the advertising patterns in the more advanced advertising markets of North America and Western Europe. T.V. accounted for 46% of all spend, taking a giant slice of the pie of close to $5.2 billion. This was followed by press, outdoor, radio, and with cinema taking the last place.

In terms of ad spend by geographical region, PanArab advertising continued to dominate the charts with a healthy $4.3 billion. In terms of individual countries, the UAE continued to get the biggest share with $3.1 billion in advertising, with KSA trailing a close second.

Finally, sector specific advertising continued to be dominated by the real estate sector, with spending in that sector close to $1.7 billion. Simultaneously, this sector garnered the largest growth from 2007 to 2008 from 750 million to its current status. The Health and Beauty sector came second with total expenditure of $1.2 billion in 2008.

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